There are two sides to every actor in Bollywood. The real and the one that’s “on the record.”
I had met Pallavi Sharda, the star of Hawaizaada (and Besharam ) through a common friend for lunch and it was such a delight to get a glimpse of Bollywood through the eyes of a girl from Melbourne who made Mumbai her home and a refreshingly realistic picture of the business.
However, when I met her the next day for an interview at a club where she had been doing promotional interviews, I met the “actress”. And in the next 25 minutes of the interview, there was very little trace of the lunch narrative. Everything was neatly whitewashed for the record. Squeaky clean quotes, Bollywood style.
So here are a few answers from the quintessential Bollywood actress interview (the questions too were the usual, of course).
“I have wanted to be a Bollywood actress since I was two years old.”
My father was a huge film buff. So he introduced me to films growing up. We used to watch films like Chupke Chupke, Abhimaan, Naya Daur, Teesri Kasam, Mili, Guddi and Uphaar . The Indian community would hire out a cinema hall once a month and I actually watched Hum Aapke Hain Kaun in the theatres. Growing up in the early nineties, Sridevi and Madhuri were beautiful heroines and they inspired me. Anil Kapoor used to be my favourite (autocorrects for Bollywood diplomacy) one of my favourite heroes.
“I had done 100 performances by the time I was ten.”
I was a bharatanatyam dancer from when I was three. I was more dancer than actor as a child. My dad documented all of that. If there was a family dinner, guests would ask: Pallu, Kaun se gaane pe naachogi aaj ? (What would you dance to today?) So I would walk around with the chunni on my head. I wore track pants and jeans every day. So when I got to wear bindi s, bangles and payal s, that was exciting as a kid. Other girls used to dress up as a princess, I dressed up as a Hindi film actress.”
“I studied law but never intended to be a lawyer.”
Because the ambition stayed with me. Between the time I was 16 and 21, I didn’t have a single break. I fast-tracked my law degree. I studied because I wanted to explore and ask myself: Do I want to be a corporate lawyer? Do I want to be a management consultant? A journalist or a PR person? And every time, the answer was, no, I still want to go to Bollywood.
Higher education was important for me because my parents are professors. So there was no option to not go to university.
“Besharam? Yes, it was a dream debut.” (She says it with 200 per cent conviction)
My fate flipped in that one week. Until then, I played the lead in a musical called Taj Express , then a lead role in Dus Tola which no one saw. But Besharam was my commercial Bollywood debut because a lot of people until then saw me as an indie actress.
“I started shoot forHawaizaadathe day after the last day of shoot forBesharam.”
I had signed this before Besharam released and the director Vibhu Puri was the writer of the first version of Taj Express . Hawaizaada had a poetic type of Hindi but we had to say it in a real way. It was challenging but I had full support from the team. (autocorrects) I have always been fluent in Hindi.
“Ayushmann Khurrana (who plays the Indian inventor Shivkar Bapuji Talpade) is in every frame but Sitara is an indispensable part of his journey.”
But she doesn’t have a Marathi background. She is a cosmopolitan Indian. It is a fictional character; that’s why we are not calling the film a biopic. While it’s inspired by true events, not much known is about Shivkar Talpade. If you Google him, there are probably about 100 words on him. No one even knew what he looked like. But yes, it is true that an Indian man flew a flying machine first. And Bal Gangadhar Tilak was there when it happened.
“The director Vibhuhas a wonderful aesthetic and lyrical palette.”
He has his own sensibility but his style shares similarities with Sanjay Leela Bhansali (who he assisted). The sets are larger than life, every frame looks like a painting.
“There’s a project overseas and a couple of scripts I am looking at.”
I had just been focussing on this. And last year, I was bound to a wheelchair due to a broken ankle for four months. I even shot a schedule with my broken ankle in Gujarat.
“We shot inGondal in Gujarat which has colonial buildings and a set was created in and around them.”
We created a tramline. Old Colaba was recreated there. You walked through the set and you were in wonderland. We played cricket after the shoot. We danced, sang, lived on the set… It was really lovely.
“I saw a rough cut ofHawaizaadaand I cried.”
It’s a film that gave me goosebumps. It’s something that pulls at your heartstrings.
